Nitish Rana’s place in the Delhi Capitals squad was partly justified by his ability to bowl off-spin. With Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Ishan Kishan — three left-handers — anchoring the Sunrisers Hyderabad top order, the logic was sound. A ball turning away from the left-hander is a harder proposition. There was one problem. Rana barely turned the ball at all. The part-timer bowled two overs in the Powerplay and two in the middle overs, conceding 55 runs without a wicket. Six sixes and two fours — all, ironically, from left-handers. The frustration for DC fans was not just the damage but the arithmetic: five specialist bowlers available, and yet Rana still bowled four. His first three overs cost 32 — an acceptable return for a non-regular in T20 cricket. Then Axar Patel gave him the 15th over. It went for 23, including three sixes and a four. This while Axar himself and Kuldeep Yadav — two spinners most captains would hand full quotas without hesitation — bowled two overs each. Kuldeep was targeted by Abhishek and Ishan and went for 30, but a wrist-spinner of his quality is precisely the type to turn a spell around if trusted with the ball. He is, at minimum, a better option than a part-timer who repeatedly landed the ball in the left-handers’ hitting arc. Axar is adept at squeezing a game when the opposition is in full flow. The left-handed top order may have given him pause, though he did dismiss Head and conceded only 23 in his two overs. An experienced bowler shouldn’t be spooked by a bad match-up — and crucially, he still did not bring himself on when Heinrich Klaasen arrived at the crease. Sunrisers were 183 for 2 after 15 overs. A score well past 250 was entirely within reach — this is a side that owns four of the five highest totals in IPL history and is widely expected to be the first to breach 300. That DC pulled them back to 242, with the last five overs costing fewer than 60, is something. But had Axar trusted his front-line bowlers more, the damage would likely have been considerably less, and the wicket column would have looked less bare. Natarajan nailed his yorkers at the death to return 40 from four overs. Ngidi gave away 41. The specialists contained the damage Rana was brought in to prevent.
Axar Patel had Kuldeep Yadav and himself. He chose Nitish Rana instead.
